Parents, Read the ESRB Label Before Buying Your Kid a Game

Richard Cardenas "I believe I speak for the majority of gamers out there who are tired of seeing video games being used as scapegoats and blamed for your child’s misguided actions because you were to lazy, ignorant or just plain stupid to check the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Ratings label of the game before you bought it for them."

[KMCROC]

I say to prove to the courts that parents are at fault, every retail store retrain their employees to inform parents the rating on the game but also have pamphlets by the games or posters so if a parent tries to state that they were not informed of the rating or their were no visible sign indicating the rating system these items will tell a different story.

[DERKADER]

Ignorance isn't an excuse in court. Why make the retailers go beyond necessary measures when the rating is already explained on the box?

[guitarded77]

NO!!! I'm not gonna waste my time glancing at the rating on the front of a box!!! It's societies job to not offend me or expose my child to inappropriate content!!!

/s/s/s/s/s/s/s <- (for those who can't identify sarcasm because the large stick up their butt broke their meter)

[Welshy]

i agree with both KMC and DERKADER to an extent.

I don't think they should be forced to go all out on the offensive with signs everywhere, but at the very least make the cashier ask the parent to sign the receipt or something if a little kid is with them and they have a copy of Mortal Kombat in their hands.

That way if dumb-ass double standard parents try to use "video games made my son do *insert crime*" then it can be thrown out if they don't have a receipt with a little passage of understanding signed?

When parents buy GTA and COD etc for little kids then bitch about them behaving differently or swearing 3 weeks down the line, i think they need to have a good look in the mirror.

It's kinda like me buying a psycho an assault rifle from a local gun store then pleading to a judge "but i didn't know he would go shoot people! i only gave him a gun!". It's a bit like the "spoons made me fat" argument too.

[ApolloTheBoss]

This is probably the only I'll give kudos to Gamestop, seeing as though they at least try to keep M rated games outta kid's hands. But parents still want to bitch about how its their money and they can't tell them what or what not to buy. Hypocrites.

[Cam977]

I thoroughly agree. Something needs to be done, maybe start showing graphic scenes in TV ads but even then, people would moan at that.

[Tone]

They should just put on proper ratings like they do for movies..pg 12 15 18 on the front. That would probably sort out any confusion!

[Deku-Johnny]

Here in the UK our game boxes have ages on them instead of letters. We still get parents trying to blame their children's bad behaviour on games.

[RickHiggity]

If your kid has an M rated game, it's probably the parents fault. I doubt some kid got $60 on his own and bought the game without anyone asking for ID.

[Arcee]

So I came across this comment on my article the other day which I want to share with you here:

"I agree, on a thematic level, with the opinion you have expressed in your column. However, as a writer, more importantly as a copy editor and most importantly as a parent, I am repulsed by the completeness of your arrogance. You speak from a position wholly uninformed by experience, knowledge and any valid standpoint whatsoever. An “oh-so-busy day of drinking and watching soaps and reality TV” is what childless people such as yourself have. I along with millions of other parents keep tabs on what our children consume, be it media, food, information, etc., and we do those things along with working a full-time job (perhaps two), working another full-time job (that would be the parenting; you know, that thing you casually dismiss as being simply watching soaps, reality TV and drinking — basically being you, but with a small person to ignore), and spending every waking hour thinking about the well being of their children. In your (cute and uninformed) column, you refer to a minority of parents, and ones who, at this point in time, don’t have the young children about which you write (people age, you see, and the problem you spend so much time bitching about isn’t much of a problem any longer; that’s why you aren’t inundated with stories about it like you might have been in the 90s, had you been literate at the time). But I would like to return to the core point: While your idea is sound, parents have a responsibility to actively determine what their children do and do not (metaphorically and physically) consume, your lack of consideration renders your particular opinion moot. In the meantime, talk about issues for which you have a basis of opinion — save your post-adolescent bullshit rage for discussions that don’t matter. Let your mommy and daddy field issues like this."

[Arcee]

Did the person even read the part that states that I am a parent as well? Or did he just dismiss the entire article when he got bored with it? Either way, this was my response:

"I am glad that you agree with my opinion on a themathic level, but further reading of your comment proves that you didn’t finish reading my whole little rant here. Or else you would have read that I am not childless and am indeed a parent of three beautiful young children who I spend the majority of my time caring for. I do my due diligence when it comes to what they read, watch, play,eat, etc. And that is in between shifts at my two jobs. One job is here at PopCults where I like using my personal column to vent such ideas. The other is as a full-time member of the Los Angeles Police Department, of which I have been a member of for the past 12 years. Of which is where I formed my opinion of the minority of parents out there who spend their days “drinking and watching soaps and reality TV” because I have consistently come across cases like this over the years and have witnessed first hand the after effects of their laziness as I process their juvenile delinquent children through the system. It is there, on the street and in the courts where I hear these same parents then ask the system for leniency because their child was affected by outside factors such as video games, music and TV. Which brings me back around to wondering how you managed to confuse my rant of a minority group of parents with parents as a whole. I know that the majority of parents out there take the time to do their responsibilities with no pause or break, the same as my wife and I do and how you describe yourself to do as well; but to say that just because we are not inundated with news stories as we were back in the 1990s, is also just as arrogant. Spend a day in my shoes and witness the callousness of some parents or watch as they ignore the basic physical, mental and emotional needs of a child and tell me that it still doesn’t happen then. Just because it is not in the news anymore doesn’t mean that it has stopped. So while I respect your comment here and understand your point, please finish reading the column before posting your comment. And please do not assume things of people. You assumed me to be childless, uniformed and arrogant – and while I will admit to be arrogant, if you would have read the column all the way through, you would have seen how wrong you were about the other two assumptions. But still, thank you for the comment nonetheless. Oh, just one more question: why take an obvious rant so serious that you would take offense by it?"

Which brings me to my last question: who the hell gets offended by an obvious rant?